Variety has confirmed reports that Sony Pictures has indeed postponed production on Spider-Man 4 so that more work can be done on the script.

Gary Ross, David Lindsay-Abaire and James Vanderbilt previously wrote drafts of the screenplay, and the trade says that Alvin Sargent is now “retooling the story.” Sargent worked on the scripts for both the second and third Spidey movies.

Back in December, SuperHeroHype was told by the studio that the production was not on hold but that they were simply on hiatus for the holidays and that production would resume in the new year. Obviously, that is not the case.

Sony still has the movie scheduled for a May 5, 2011 release (not May 6 or May 11 as some sites are reporting), but Variety adds “that date has become highly unlikely.”

“We’ll try, but I think making May is a real question,” a source told the trade. “We will not start until we have it right. The feeling is we are not going to rush it to make the date.”